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<head><title>
Executor FAQ - Section 3
</title>
<link rev="made" href="mailto:questions@ardi.com">
</head><body><h1>
Executor FAQ - Section 3 <br>
Using Executor
</h1>

<ul>
<li><a href="#wherecmd" rel=subdocument>Q3.1. Where are the Cmd (Clover) and Option keys?</a></li>
<li><a href="#q_3_2" rel=subdocument>Q3.2. What is an image file?</a></li>
<li><a href="#q_3_3" rel=subdocument>Q3.3. Can I launch applications directly from the command
line?</a></li>
<li><a href="#ghostfonts" rel=subdocument>Q3.4. I installed a font in Executor, but I still can't print in it.  What's
the deal?</a></li>
<li><a href="#q_3_5" rel=subdocument>Q3.5. Can I have Executor use more than 8 MB for the application
zone?</a></li>
<li><a href="#q_3_6" rel=subdocument>Q3.6. An application I'm trying crashes.  What should I
do?</a></li>
<li><a href="#q_3_7" rel=subdocument>Q3.7. Why do some applications claim I don't have an
FPU?</a></li>
<li><a href="#compact" rel=subdocument>Q3.8. Why does Compact Pro have trouble with multi-volume
archives?</a></li>
<li><a href="#internet" rel=subdocument>Q3.9. How can I use Mac software from the internet?</a></li>
<li><a href="#q_3_10" rel=subdocument>Q3.10. How can I use Mac software from Bulletin
Boards?</a></li>
<li><a href="#q_3_11" rel=subdocument>Q3.11. How can I use Mac software from AOL?</a></li>
<li><a href="#textfiles" rel=subdocument>Q3.12. Why do files which aren't text files look like text
files?</a></li>
<li><a href="#q_3_13" rel=subdocument>Q3.13. What does &quot;You may open a 32000 character selection&quot;
mean?</a></li>
<li><a href="#q_3_14" rel=subdocument>Q3.14. What is Speedometer?</a></li>
<li><a href="#q_3_15" rel=subdocument>Q3.15. How can I get a screen dump of Executor?</a></li>
<li><a href="#q_3_16" rel=subdocument>Q3.16. How does your Browser show file size?</a></li>
<li><a href="#q_3_17" rel=subdocument>Q3.17. How does your Browser show free space?</a></li>
<li><a href="#q_3_18" rel=subdocument>Q3.18. Why does Browser display question marks for some
documents?</a></li>
</ul><hr>

<A name="wherecmd"><h2>
Question 3.1.  Where are the Cmd (Clover) and Option
keys?
</h2></A>

On a PC keyboard, Executor uses the left &quot;Alt&quot; key as a Cmd
key and the right &quot;Alt&quot; key as the Option key. 

<A name="q_3_2"><h2>
Question 3.2.  What is an image file?
</h2></A>

Some Macintosh sites contain image files that are exact copies of a
Macintosh Hierarchical FileSystem (HFS) volume with a few bytes of
header information prepended.  Executor allows you to use image
files just like HFVs, although they should have the suffix
&quot;<code>.ima</code>&quot; instead of &quot;<code>.hfv</code>&quot;.  
<A name="q_3_3"><h2>
Question 3.3.  Can I launch applications directly from the command
line?
</h2></A>

Yes.  If an application resides within a UNIX or DOS filesystem, you
can specify the name of the application, and documents that you would
like the application to open when it starts up, on the command line. 
Applications that reside in HFV files are specified using colons to
delimit the pathname, e.g. &quot;<code>executor MyVolume:directory:application</code>&quot;.  
<A name="ghostfonts"><h2>
Question 3.4.  I installed a font in Executor, but I still can't print
in it.  What's the deal?
</h2></A>

You have to install the same font in Ghostscript.  Otherwise,
Ghostscript will use the default Helvetica font since it can't find
the one you want.  Don't forget to add the paths to the fonts into
your fonts pfb file.  
<A name="q_3_5"><h2>
Question 3.5.  Can I have Executor use more than 8 MB for the
application zone?
</h2></A>

You can use up to 64 MB for the applzone. 

<A name="q_3_6"><h2>
Question 3.6.  An application I'm trying crashes.  What should I
do?
</h2></A>

Perhaps the most common avoidable cause of crashes is insufficient
memory for the emulated application.  You can fix this by increasing
the &quot;applzone&quot; parameter.  For example, many programs which
normally die quickly will work with &quot;executor -applzone 4m&quot; (which
allocates 4 MB of space for the emulated application; see the list of command line
switches and their meanings elsewhere in this document). 

<p>
DOS NOTE: If you run &quot;executor -info&quot;, it will tell you how
much DPMI memory is available and how much memory is being used by the applzone,
syszone and stack.  If there is less DPMI memory available than the
sum of the applzone, syszone and stack memory requirements, then
Executor will page between DPMI memory and a special
&quot;paging&quot; disk file.  This paging slows you down and also consumes disk space.  It is
possible to manually override the applzone, syszone and stack defaults
with smaller values, but when you do so, you run the risk of not
having enough memory for an application to run.  Unfortunately,
Macintosh programs are often not polite at all when they do not have
enough memory.  The Lemmings demo is an example of such a program; if
you run that program on a real Mac and only give it 1200k of memory,
weird errors will occur.  Doing the same under Executor will also
yield weird errors.  
<p>
If Executor needs to make a paging file, and there is not enough disk
space to create one, you will get an error message during Executor's
startup.  If you have the environment variable &quot;TEMP&quot; set,
then Executor will try to place its paging file there, so if TEMP is set to
point to a small RAM disk, or a disk that is nearly filled, Executor
may run out of memory too easily.  
<p>
Some programs are unhappy with Executor's limited sound support, and
crash.  You can turn on the &quot;pretend sound&quot; option before
running the application in question and see if this helps.  In addition, some
programs have menu items, or preference check boxes that can be used
to disable sound.  It is always recommended that you disable sound
from within a program in addition to using the Executor sound
preferences, if you have to disable sound. 

<p>
One example of a program that will have problems with sound is
&quot;Ultimate Solitaire&quot;.  If you do not disable sound from
within Ultimate Solitaire, the game will play fine, until you win.  At that
point it will tell Executor to start playing a sound and request that
Executor notify it when the sound is done playing.  If sound is off,
this will result in Ultimate Solitaire hanging after you win a game. 

<p>
Some programs also save preferences in a file, and if something bad
happens to that file, the program can then get confused and will not
run properly.  Occasionally this happens to Microsoft Word, and you
need to use the browser to delete the file &quot;Word
Preferences&quot; from your &quot;System Folder&quot;.  
<p>
Although it should not happen, even our file browser keeps a file
around that can cause trouble if it becomes corrupt.  That file is
&quot;godata.sav&quot;.  It stores which folders you have open and the
contents of your &quot;hot-band&quot;.  If that file gets corrupt, the file
browser may not run.  In the rare case that the browser won't run, you can use the
&quot;-nobrowser&quot; switch when you start Executor to bypass the
browser, but to get the browser back you'll need to either delete
&quot;godata.sav&quot; somehow or replace exsystem.hfv with one from the original
distribution.  
<A name="q_3_7"><h2>
Question 3.7.  Why do some applications claim I don't have an
FPU?
</h2></A>

The problem is probably that the applications you are trying to use
try to directly manipulate the FPU unit that some Macintoshes have. 

<p>
The key words are &quot;directly manipulate&quot;.  Apple warned
software makers to not directly manipulate the FPU, but to instead use their numerics
library (&quot;SANE&quot; Standard Apple Numerics Environment). 
Programs that don't use SANE, but directly manipulate the FPU run faster on Macs
that have FPUs, but don't run at all on Macs that don't have FPUs.  If
that is actually the source of your problems, then such programs also
wouldn't run on Apple machines like the Quadra 605.  This limitation
is also present on Apple's PowerPC based Macs. 

<p>
One workaround for this problem is an &quot;INIT&quot; called
&quot;SoftFPU&quot;.  SoftFPU will make a Mac without a co-processor work as though there is
one there, however the floating point computation will be done very
slowly.  However, SoftFPU can't be used with Executor until Executor
supports INITs.  
<A name="compact"><h2>
Question 3.8.  Why does Compact Pro have trouble with multi-volume
archives?
</h2></A>

Executor takes a short cut that causes trouble for some programs;
Compact Pro is one of them.  The problem is that a real Macintosh can
keep track of volumes that are not physically in the drive.  That is
why Macintoshes sometimes tell you to put one disk in their floppy
drive, then they eject it and ask for another one, then eject it and
ask for the first one.  Executor currently isn't so clever.  When a
disk is ejected, Executor forgets about it.  Few programs count on the
behavior of a real Mac, but those that do currently won't work with
Executor.  
<p>
In Compact Pro's case you can just copy all of the pieces of the
archive to your hard disk, then open the last piece from the hard disk
and everything will work properly.  This workaround requires more hard
disk space than you'd need if you could just read the pieces off a
succession of floppies.  
<p>
Since this difference affects very few programs, it's not as high
priority as adding other new features.  
<A name="internet"><h2>
Question 3.9.  How can I use Mac software from the
internet?
</h2></A>

Find a site that legitimately has Mac software for use.  There is a
Macintosh FAQ that lists many sites -- here are some of them:

<ul>
<li><code>www.ardi.com</code> : <A href="ftp://www.ardi.com/pub/samples"><code>/pub/samples</code></A> (USA) </li>
<li><code>liquify.isca.uiowa.edu</code> : <A href="ftp://liquify.isca.uiowa.edu/mac/infomac"><code>/mac/infomac</code></A> (USA) </li>
<li><code>wuarchive.wustl.edu</code> : <A href="ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/mac/info-mac"><code>/systems/mac/info-mac</code></A> (USA) </li>
<li><code>ftp.technion.ac.il</code> : <A href="ftp://ftp.technion.ac.il/pub/unsupported/mac"><code>/pub/unsupported/mac</code></A> (Israel) </li>
<li><code>ftp.sunset.se</code> : <A href="ftp://ftp.sunset.se/pub/mac"><code>/pub/mac</code></A> (Sweden) </li>
<li><code>src.doc.ic.ac.uk</code> : <A href="ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/info-mac"><code>/packages/info-mac</code></A> (UK) </li>
<li><code>ftp.is.co.za</code> : <A href="ftp://ftp.is.co.za/info-mac"><code>/info-mac</code></A> (South Africa) </li>
</ul>

<p>
Our <A href="ftp://ftp.ardi.com/pub/samples">samples directory</A> is there to give you a few files in a variety of different formats that are known to work with Executor.  If
you have trouble downloading Mac software from the internet, you may
want to practice these instructions using the files in our
<A href="ftp://ftp.ardi.com/pub/samples">samples directory</A> first, so you'll know you're not attempting something impossible.  
<p>
Before transferring a large application, you might want to see what
the requirements of that application are, most sites have a collection
of small notes about applications that you can look at first. 

<p>
Use BINARY mode to transfer the files that you want to use.  Files
whose names end in &quot;.hqx&quot; are usually the easiest to handle.
 
<p>
In general, StuffIt Expander will do well with many different types of
files.  However, some of the Web Browsers out there interfere with
StuffIt Expander by trying to expand the files as you're downloading
them from the net.  The browser sees that you're not running on a
Macintosh, so the non-Macintosh information (like the type and
creator) is thrown away!  One way to avoid this problem with some of
the web browsers is to hold the shift key down when you click on a
link that contains a Macintosh file.  There are other ways that
specific browsers can be configured to tell them to
<em>not</em> expand Macintosh files as they're picking them up. 

<p>
Under DOS, you need to make an HFV file [see
<A href="section6.html#makehfv">Q6.2 `What is makehfv?'</A>] that will be large enough to hold the files as you've downloaded them and also
hold the files after they've been expanded.  Once you've made the HFV
file, copy all the files you've downloaded into it, then follow the
remaining directions.  
<p>
Under all operating systems, your next step is to run StuffIt Expander
and use the &quot;Expand...&quot; menu item from the &quot;File&quot;
menu to open each of the files you've downloaded.  In general, especially when dealing
with files whose names end in &quot;.hqx&quot;, StuffIt Expander will
do the right thing.  However, some sites do not store files in
&quot;.hqx&quot; format, and StuffIt Expander may fail.  Remember, under DOS, you must do the
StuffIt Expansion inside an HFV file.  
<p>
If StuffIt Expander fails, you can try using the Get Info option of
Executor's browser to change the creator and type information of the
file.  If you believe the downloaded file in question is a StuffIt
Archive, you can change the type and creator each to &quot;SIT!&quot;
and then try StuffIt Expander again.  If you believe the downloaded file is a
Compact Pro archive, you can change the creator to &quot;CPCT&quot;
and the type to &quot;PACT&quot; and then try StuffIt Expander again.  Similarly,
you can use creator &quot;BnHq&quot; and type &quot;TEXT&quot; if you think that
the file is a MacBinary file.  StuffIt Expander 4.0 should be much better at
automatically determining what format an archive is in. 

<A name="q_3_10"><h2>
Question 3.10.  How can I use Mac software from Bulletin
Boards?
</h2></A>

In general, follow the procedure in <A href="#internet">Q3.9 `How can I use Mac software from the internet?'</A> -- know the limitations of what Executor can run, transfer in binary mode and use
StuffIt Expander to unpack the files you download.  Just like with
files downloaded from the internet, sometimes you'll need to change
the file type and creator, first.  
<A name="q_3_11"><h2>
Question 3.11.  How can I use Mac software from
AOL?
</h2></A>

AOL sometimes (about half the time) uses a format that StuffIt
Expander under Executor has trouble with.  For DOS/Windows users, use
this workaround.  Get a copy of unstuff.exe (available on AOL
compressed as unsitins.exe) and use the -mb tag to convert your
downloaded files to MacBinary format before ever moving them into
Executor.  E.g.: <pre>
unstuff -mb somefile.sit
</pre>
<br>
And you'll get somefile with a different extension. 

<p>
Then start up Executor and use BinHex's Download --&gt; Application
function to convert the file to an application and move it into
an Executor volume simultaneously.  
<p>
Note that if the file can be unstuffed in the usual manner, then
trying to use this workaround will break it.  It's usually best,
therefore, to try normal unstuffing first. 

<A name="textfiles"><h2>
Question 3.12.  Why do files which aren't text files look like text
files?
</h2></A>

Macintosh files have File Type and File Creator information stored in
their directory entries on a Macintosh filesystem.  These two pieces
of information are often lost when the file is put onto a PC. 
Executor's default is to assume that a file is a text file, because
text is the most universal of file types.  If the file is not a text
file you'll probably want to use StuffIt Expander (see
<A href="#internet">Q3.9 `How can I use Mac software from the internet?'</A>) to expand the archive, or in rare cases you'll have to change the File
Creator and File Type.  
<p>
To change a file's Creator and Type information, run Browser, select
the file's icon, and choose Get Info from Browser's File menu.  Then
change File Creator and File Type to the appropriate codes from the
filetype.txt list in the docs directory of your Executor CD. 

<p>
NOTE: in addition to having Type and Creator information, Macintosh
files also often have information in the &quot;Resource Fork&quot;
portion of the file.  That information is also often lost when a file is
transferred to a PC, so it's possible that changing the Type and
Creator information will not be sufficient to allow you to use a Mac
file on a PC under Executor unless you use some sort of archiving
program (e.g. StuffIt, Compact Pro) to make sure all the Mac
information is stored in the &quot;Data Fork&quot; of the file. 

<A name="q_3_13"><h2>
Question 3.13.  What does &quot;You may open a 32000 character
selection&quot; mean?
</h2></A>

As mentioned in <A href="#textfiles">Q3.12 `Why do files which aren't text files look like text
files?'</A>, files that don't have a file type are assumed to be text files.  That means that if you double-click on
them, Tex-Edit will try to open up the file, even if the file is in
some other representation.  Executor does not use filename extensions
to determine a file's types, so if you download a file named
&quot;testfile.bin&quot; and then let Executor see the file, it will
still appear to be a text file, even though the name strongly suggests that
it's a BinHex file.  
<p>
You can use StuffIt Expander (see <A href="#internet">Q3.9 `How can I use Mac software from the internet?'</A>) to expand a variety of different file types, but you'll have to start StuffIt Expander up
directly, by double-clicking on it and then use the
&quot;Expand...&quot; item in the &quot;File&quot; menu to select the file you want to expand
(e.g. &quot;testfile.bin&quot;).  
<A name="q_3_14"><h2>
Question 3.14.  What is Speedometer?
</h2></A>

Speedometer is a shareware application that we have included with
Executor for demonstrational purposes.  We have done so with
permission of Speedometer's author, Scott Berfield.  It benchmarks
Macintoshes (and PCs running Executor) to find out how quickly their
CPU, graphics, floating point and disk subsystems work.  The current
version of Speedometer is Speedometer 4.x, but that uses a timing
mechanism that Executor currently doesn't support.  Speedometer 3.23
can give you a rough approximation of how quickly your PC is emulating
a Mac.  Remember, Speedometer is shareware, and ARDI has not paid the
shareware fee for you.  If you repeatedly use Speedometer, please
register it with Scott.  
<p>
Speedometer will show you that Executor is a very efficient emulator. 
Please note, ARDI has not put special hooks into Executor to recognize
Speedometer's code and bypass it; Speedometer is treated just like any
other application when run under Executor.  Yes, it would be possible
for us to cheat and make Speedometer return values that are higher
than you could expect to see in real life, but we don't do that sort
of thing.  
<A name="q_3_15"><h2>
Question 3.15.  How can I get a screen dump of
Executor?
</h2></A>

Just type Cmd-Shift-3, just like on a Mac.  The difference is that the
screen shot will be in TIFF format (uncompressed, for now) and will be
written in the directory that contains <code>executor.exe</code> under DOS, or in <code>/tmp</code> under Linux.  
<A name="q_3_16"><h2>
Question 3.16.  How does your Browser show file
size?
</h2></A>

Listing mode will show you the combined size of a file's resource and
data fork.  There is currently no way to determine the size of a
folder.  
<A name="q_3_17"><h2>
Question 3.17.  How does your Browser show free
space?
</h2></A>

Select the volume, then choose &quot;Get Info&quot; from the File
menu.  
<A name="q_3_18"><h2>
Question 3.18.  Why does Browser display question marks for some
documents?
</h2></A>

Browser uses the question-mark icon for documents for which it doesn't
recognize the file type and creator.  Furthermore, Browser isn't good
about remembering type and creator information. 

<p>
Here's how Browser works: when Browser starts, it examines each
application that is either on the hot-band or is in a folder that is
open on Browser's desktop.  Then, as it is drawing the icons for
documents, it only uses icons for those applications that it saw upon
startup.  
<p>
So, if the application that creates a document isn't either on the
hot-band or in an open folder, browser will present a question-mark
icon.  A real Mac remembers any icons that it has ever seen (until you
rebuild the desktop).  
<p>
If you have the application that corresponds to the document that has
a question mark, you can get rid of the question mark by dragging the
application onto the hot-band and then quitting Executor and
restarting (or by running an application and then quitting the
application).  When Browser restarts it will see the application in
the hot-band and then remember the icon that should be used for
documents of that type.  <hr>
Next: <a href="section4.html" rel=precedes>Executor/Win32</a>.<br>
Back: <a href="section2.html" rev=precedes>Executor's Limitations</a>.<br>
<a href="index.html" rev=subdocument>Return to contents</a>.<p>
<address>

- 28 February 2002
</address><br>
Extracted from Executor Frequently Asked Questions with Answers,
<A href="section7.html#faqcopyright">Copyright ARDI 2002.</A>
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